A Hero's Journey Through Science Fiction

“Oh my, no. You look fine.” (Run, children, run!)

“Have you ever peered over a ledge, so high up…that it made you nervous or dizzy…that it made you feel the urge to jump?” Michael Stevens at Vsauce explains this as the High Place Phenomenon, and this is just part of the issue when it comes to being creeped out or put ill-at-ease with Ambiguity. Those of us who swim the waters of science fiction know this as The Uncanny Valley. Observe:

“Will you go with me to the prom? Let me babysit your children?” No. And no.

Why is Wall-e and R2-D2 just so darn cute, and yet this Japanese android makes us want to run screaming from the room in terror? As Michael Stevens explains, it all hails from “an adaptive human response to the ambiguity of threats from others.” Like Teddy Bears with teeth.

Watch this, uh, creepy explanation of ambiguity by the good folks at Vsauce.